MUFE Pink Beige

Here's me, wearing MUFE's Pink Beige and UD's Sin Primer. As you can see, it's a very work safe look, but it makes me look younger, and I'm at an age where I definitely appreciate all the help I can get!

Beads, beads and more beads!

Some pictures of the haul from our trip to the Intergalactic Bead Show last weekend. Out of all the shows we go to, Intergalactic is probably my favorite, since it has a variety of sellers offering more than just strung beads. My seed bead lady Laura of The Bead Room is always at Intergalactic, and she usually has a special new color for me to admire. She and her husband are also Terry Pratchett fans, which is always a sign of good taste. :D

On to the haul!

See the skull beads in there? We're ready to make many more Sugar Skulls and Sugar Skulls II necklaces!

I talked Joey into picking up some of the Mookite beads for a necklace of his own. They're the soft autumn leaf shade beads on the right. There are also some soft ivory and green mother-of-pearl beads in two sizes.

There are some wonderful heat treated blue quartz pebble beads in that haul, and even though I got them at half price thanks to a great deal from a new seller, the price still made me gulp. I still had to have them. Now if I could just figure out what I want to do with them...

Adorable glass chili pepper beads!

Seed Beads from the Bead Room. Even after all my restocking, Laura still had plenty of new things to catch my eye.

Does anything catch your eye?

Think Pink

Saturday's trip to Sephora was a success. I picked up Make Up Forever Aqua Cream in shade 16 Pink Beige. It's a gorgeously pigmented medium pink shade that's very flattering. It was love at first sight. I also snagged Benefit's Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow in Flatter Me. Flatter Me is more toasted and less mauve than it shows on the website, but it's a beautiful neutral shade for those days when pink won't do.

After exchanging my DDF moisturizer, I still had a dollar's worth of credit left, so I decided to pick up LipFusion's Lip InFATuation in First Crush, a soft pink nude. I have a sample of Lip InFATuation in the In The Flesh shade, and my quibbles with the brush applicator aside, I really liked it. I tend to go for the deep berry shades or classic red lip colors, but In The Flesh really sold me on the soft nude shades, and I think they'll be great for quick springtime looks. Because in case you missed me mentioning it, I am incredibly lazy when I first get up in the morning. Having some gorgeous go-to flattering pinks and neutrals will definitely help me go out the door feeling more like a human being and less like an extra on Shaun of the Dead, but if you see me in the morning and tell me "You've got red on you." I'll try to make sure I smile at you.

Watching TV With Your Feet

When I was a kid, I could never figure out why my father would switch the television over to an old movie, settle into his easy chair and then promptly fall asleep. Of course, if you even thought about changing the channel, Dad would wake up and grumble "I was watching that!" We called it "watching TV with your feet" because that was the only thing even remotely pointed at the television when Dad got his nap on. I could swear that my dad's toes had 20/20 vision.

When I was child, I understood childish things. Now that I'm older and cranky without a nap, I see, and understand.

My path toward nap enlightenment started with a very comfy club chair and a microfleece throw I picked up as part of a gift basket I won at a professional development event. It was cozy, but not very generously sized, and I ended up fighting the cats for a corner of the blanket while those ungrateful moggies snored in my ear. Then I picked up two Mink to Fur Reversible Blankets on sale, one for my chair, and one for the couch.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have achieved Napvana. Give me my club chair, my new furry blanket, a few episodes of NCIS or Criminal Minds that I've seen before and I'm out like a light. At least until Joey tries to change the channel...

Good Advices

I'm probably way late on this, but I was pointed in the direction of Arcade Fire's viral video The Wilderness Downtown (which I must point out, takes Google Chrome to run properly and is a freaky mess of conflicting windows in an "I went to Art School and Film School and you didn't" kind of way).

The video uses Google Maps to show you the address you specify, which is supposed to be the house you grew up in as a child. Which it does, and I can even see my Dad's truck parked outside the house where I grew up and the pathetic mess the house across the road has turned into over the years. So, for coolness factor, it's pretty neat, even if I don't really get all the fuss about Arcade Fire. I think I'm supposed to, as a mid-thirties New Wave kid who likes her share of current hipster bands and old school irony, but I never really got all the fuss about Joy Division or Kate Bush in the '80s and '90s, either. *cough* I digress.

At the end of the video(s) (still not sure about that one, since there were like 10 separate Chrome windows doing their thing at one time all on top of one another - it was a browser love-in of massive proportions), you're supposed to write a postcard to your younger self, the self that grew up in that house address you plugged in five minutes earlier and said "Wow! Mr. Harrison needs to mow his damn lawn!" about. So, I thought about it, and I decided to tell the younger me the one thing that all kids need to hear growing up, and few ever do:

Don't worry about what other people think of you. Just be yourself, as hard as you possibly can, because you're awesome.

Even if it isn't always true, it damned well ought to be.

DDF vs Stila

Tomorrow, I'm heading out to my local Sephora to exchange an unopened tube of DDF Mattifying Oil Control UV Moisturizer SPF 15 for cream eyeshadows I've had my eye on trying.

The DDF moisturizer has been my daily moisturizer for about a year now, and I have no complaints about how it works for me. It did exactly what it promised it would do - controlled the daily outbreak of oily skin on my face and gave me some sun protection. The texture is smooth and somewhat thin, making it easy to apply, and with once daily use (I use a moisturizing serum at night), a tube will last you about three months, making it $14 a month, which to me was a reasonable price to pay for not having oily skin. So, this is not an idictment against the DDF product, but a comparison of my old solution versus the new one I'd found.

After two weeks of using Stila's Sheer Color Tinted Oil Free Moisturizer SPF 30, with very pleasing results, I decided to use the itty bitty bit of DDF I had left from the opened tube with L'Oreal's Studio Secrets Magic Perfecting Base under my mineral foundation to see how it compared.

Bottom line, for me, Stila wins.

Even though the Stila moisturizer is much thicker than DDF's, it does apply smoothly and gives me a lovely wash of color before I apply my foundation. Not only that, but it acts as a mild concealer, covering my red and troubled areas with just enough tint to hide them easily. I did not get this result from DDF + primer. My makeup is still on and my skin is still mostly matte, but it's lacking that little bitty bit of smoothness and pretty "Your skin but better" look I've gotten used to by wearing Stila + mineral foundation. And, let's be honest, two steps versus three steps is another vote in Stila's favor here, especially when you're as lazy as I am when I first get up in the morning.

Serendipity and Shiny, Shiny Beads

One afternoon in the recent past, I was casually admiring the necklace worn by a co-worker and idly considering how I could work stationed designs into my own work. I was still pondering this new design direction when I decided to hold a pre-Valentine's Day sale in our Etsy shop so I could buy myself a pair of very pretty sequined Dansko clogs for Valentine's Day. Well, what should arrive in my Etsy convo inbox but a request from a very clever customer asking me if it would be possible to make a stationed "Y" shape necklace ending in a spiral pendant and crystal dangles. Clear and concise mock-up artwork was included, which as any designer of anything will tell you is a HUGE help. I looked over the design my very clever customer had in mind, went through the internal specs/materials checklist and decided that not only would the design work, but that I could not wait to get started on it. It was as if my very clever customer was reading my mind and had made my idea ten times better. Behold the result!

Bigger picture version here!

As with every customer-driven design (of which there are many, and for which I am exceedingly grateful), the customer gets input on the naming of the item if I decide to offer the item in the shop. Since this particular customer already has a totally gorgeous spiral necklace named in her honor, we settled on naming the latest joint creation "The Charming Miss M." I hope you love it as much as we both do.

You fail me yet again, Starscream E.L.F.

A few years ago, I went on a total E.L.F. makeup buying bender. I ordered so much from them so fast that I exhausted the allowed number of uses on not one, but two of my coupon codes. I bought E.L.F. for my mother, my sister, my best friends, and I would have bought it for my dogs, except my dogs are elderly boy dogs that have no use for makeup.

One of the items I really loved at the time were the All Over Color Sticks. In the pro column, they are purse friendly, portable and easy to use, and offered in a range of skin-flattering colors, including a lovely white highlighter shade. They have a sweet orange candy scent that lasts just long enough to appreciate and they cost $1.00 for a fairly generous amount of product. During my binge, I bought one in every color and raved about them to random people on and off the internet.

Well, that was then. And this is now. While I understand it’s entirely possible that my skin’s oiliness and texture may have dramatically changed in the time between I purchased my All Over Color Sticks and today, what I think really happened is that I’ve learned a lot more about makeup thanks to the blogging efforts of the lovely Phyrra, Grey, Ana and Saila, and I've learned to be more picky in what my makeup does and how it performs. So let's fast forward to this morning. Following the new regimen of tinted moisturizer, mineral foundation, and the aforementioned Happy Booster Blush, I added a layer of Urban Decay's "Sin" eyeshadow primer all over my eye, let it set, and on top of that I layered on the All Over Color Stick in Persimmon, which is a lovely medium pink shade. I thought with the addition of the UD primer, the All Over Color Stick would pretty much stay put, since I'd been so pleased with their performance before. Boy, was I in for a sad surprize when 10 AM came around and I checked my makeup in the bathroom mirror. Sure enough, there it was - massive creasing. You could actually see the product slipping down into the crease of my eye, and at this point, my makeup had been on just over two hours. (I'd post a picture of it, but as luck would have it, I left my handy phone on the charger this morning. Go figure. Picture time!)

I'm pretty bummed out about this, since I like the colors of the All Over Color Sticks, and I was hoping to get a few days' grace out it to see how I like using cream eyeshadow on a daily basis before I go to Sephora this weekend to try either Make Up For Ever's Aqua Cream Shadow in Pink Beige or Benefit's Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner in Flatter Me.

I kind of want my dollar back, too.

California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade

Later will come the rather long and rambling post about my musical boyfriends and how I came to adore them, but for now, enjoy one of my very favorite tunes by that talented Mr. Colin Meloy and his fellow Decemberists, California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade. This song never fails to make me feel better and put me at ease, no matter what's going on. I hope you like it too.

Love is in the details

This afternoon I opened my desk drawer to look for some item of office ephemera and found a bag of Cadbury's Mini Eggs there. I just had to smile. See, Joey had brought me the bag of Mini Eggs as a treat a few days ago, and I'd left them in my desk drawer until today, when a Cadbury Mini Egg was just the thing I needed to get me past my post-lunch slump.

Joey is always doing things like that - bringing me little treats and making me laugh over something silly. A lot of emphasis is placed on the big things that signify a relationship. You see it every holiday. "She won't love you if you don't buy her this necklace or this ring!" "She wants a car with a big red bow on it!" Those things are all well and good, but at the end of the day, what I want, what I really need, is a man who remembers that I love Cadbury Mini Eggs, and who can almost always make me laugh.

"She flew away. God's truth, she flew away!"

Everybody has at least one "cinematic chicken soup" film. It's the one film you turn to when you need cheering up, or when you need comfort. It doesn't have to be a fantastic film, it doesn't even have to be very good, it just has to make you feel better when you see it. You know every line, every scene, every piece of the musical score if it has one.

One of my all-time favorite cinematic chicken soup movies is Ladyhawke. It is total '80s cinema cheese. It has a synthesizer score written by Alan Parsons, he of Sirius and Eye in the Sky, it has Rutger Hauer in a gasp! heroic role that doesn't make him into a complete immoral bastard, a young and fresh Michelle Pfeiffer and it has that '80s "It" boy, little Matthew Broderick in a medieval tale of love, loss, magic and one hell of a sarcastic, drunken monk, played with sardonic abandon by He Who Must Obey, Leo McKern. Oh! And let's not forget John Wood playing the completely immoral bastard The Bishop of Aquilla, as only John Wood can play a complete immoral bastard - which is very well indeed.

Ladyhawke is cheesy. Ladyhawke is a contrived, anachronistic sword-and-sorcery fairy tale as only the '80s could give us. It was released the summer I was ten years old and my sister was sixteen. She was the one who introduced me and my mother to the wonders of Ladyhawke and I can't remember how many times she and her best friend Laura saw it in the theaters. I know none of us could tell you how many times we've seen it since then, but that number is pretty daggoned high. My mother even named my first car "Ladyhawke" when it was her car, and she had the soundtrack on cassette tape that played constantly. I would late rename the car to "Nigel", but that is another story for another day.

If The Princess Bride is my perfect cinematic chicken soup film (which it definitely IS), Ladyhawke is the flawed stepsister who I nontheless love just as much or maybe even a little more not in spite of its flaws, but because of them.

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Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

After searching every Target, Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS in my immediate area and beyond with no luck in finding the new Physcian's Formula Happy Booster™ Glow & Mood Boosting Blush, I tried one more time at a Meijer in Cincinnati that was on the way to our hotel. We went up this weekend for the Intergalactic Bead Show that was in town (more on that later!)

We stopped off at the Meijer after a fabulous (if somewhat too long) dinner at The Rookwood Bar and Restaurant to pick up some soft drinks, snacks and a box of allergy pills for me because Benedryl is a girl's best travel companion and I'd forgotten mine. Well, the er....tenth time's the charm, as this particular Meijer had one compact of the Rose blush left and two of the Natural color.

I have to admit that when it comes to makeup, I regress to the age of five. If it's got a gimmick, or has pretty packaging, or sparkles, or a cute design, chances are good I'll want it, regardless of what my rational brain tells me about the gimmick, promises or past experience. On the whole, I've had good experiences with Physican's Formula products, and after reading many good reviews of the Happy Booster blush, I was determined to try it. Besides, how can you turn down a compact that looks like this?

Since I already have a go-to peachy blush in Nars' infamous "Orgasm" color, I opted for the rose shade. My natural coloring is what they call "Peaches and Cream" - very fair with red cheeks, so I figured the Rose would be okay and would work with my skin tones. Of course, with the Rosacea in play, my skin tone can more realistically be called "Peaches and Oh My God, Who Slapped You?!", so I have a love-hate relationship with most blush products, but I figured with the new morning regimen of tinted moisturizer and mineral foundation, along with a nice synthetic brush and a light hand at application would help offset the overly-red, female news anchor look. The promised happy-boosting scent is all right. It doesn't make me sneeze, at least, and it's not unpleasant.

As for making me happier, well, I try to be happy as often as possible, if only for the supposed health benefits. I also figure that being cynical and sarcastic can still exist alongside happy if you do it right. As for making me look happier, I leave it to you to judge.

P.S. Greeter lady at that Meijer? Asking my husband whether or not he plays the bagpipes is NOT the right question to ask a 6-foot-plus man in a kilt. Instead of being pissy he simply said "No" and walked on, try asking yourself why you made that assumption and try not doing it next time, 'kay? Oh, I think my happy's wearing off. More blush!

Customer Service: You're doing it wrong

A short aside - I know the actual meme is "UR doin it wrong" but I can't force myself to type "ur" as a word, even in the pursuit of meme references. Ur was a place, it could possibly be an abbreviation, but it isn't a word. We all clear on that? Good.

Yesterday I was reading the tale of a very angry customer and a company that was so caught up in their own marketing that they decided it was better to alienate their customer than to address the customer's concerns. The company's product had failed the customer and caused her to incur additional expenses on top of what she'd already paid for the product itself. After some difficulty in contacting the company's customer service department, our intrepid customer finally got an answer from the company, an answer which managed to not only not address her issue with the product, but implied that the customer had misused the product, AND included a not-at-all-veiled sales pitch for more of the company's products!

Yeah, because nothing will make a customer feel valued faster than telling them they're too stupid to use the product they've already purchased from you, then trying to shill more stuff at them in the guise of addressing their concerns.

Marketing has its place in a business strategy. That place is not when addressing a customer complaint. But it's happening more and more every day. Here's another example:

A while back, I stopped at a restaurant to have a sandwich. When the sandwich arrived, it was a fatty, greasy, disgusting mess. I didn't have time to send the sandwich back to be remade or to get a different sandwich, so I ate what I could and left the restaurant in high enough dudgeon that I contacted the company and expressed my dissatisfaction with their product. I stated that I did not want the usual "Be Our Guest" free item offer that usually follows these requests, I just wanted to make them aware of the problem so they could fix it. A customer service rep emailed me back, stating that she was sorry that I'd had a bad experience and wanted to offer me the "Be Our Guest" free item anyway. Had she left it that, it would have been an okay transaction. But she didn't leave it at that. She went on to comment that the reason I'd had a bad experience with the sandwich was because I didn't understand or appreciate the richer, higher quality ingredients that they'd sourced just to make this hot mess of a sandwich. Well, maybe I didn't understand the intrinsic wonder of the foodstuffs that made up the disgusting mess that was my sandwich, and maybe I'm just some ill-bred cretin who wouldn't know quality ingredients if they sashayed up and subjected me to a Gordon Ramsey tirade about how goddamn fucking wonderful they are and I'm a donkey's arse to not appreciate them, but I did understand one thing all too well after receiving that email - that I'd gone from a customer with a concern to a customer that was good and pissed off.

How, exactly, did that help the company in keeping me as a customer? What purpose did it serve to inject marketing spin into a conversation that should have focused on turning a customer with a problem into a customer who wants to give your business another shot? It didn't.

When your customer contacts you with a problem, you get one chance to make it right. Sometimes you're lucky if you have that. Why ruin the chance you have? How hard is it to say "I'm sorry you did not have a good experience with my product. What can I do to make it right?" You may never be able to make it completely right, and sometimes the customer isn't going to be satisfied no matter what you do, but the point to the whole exercise is to turn a customer with a problem into a satisfied customer who wants to come back to you. You're not going to do that by patronizing them, shilling to them, or ignoring the problem they brought you in the first place.

"And she's all 'Whatever, I just don't want any liver!'"

One of the most popular Etsy trends in jewelry are the antiqued/age-blackened looks. While I love it with all my heart, with very few exceptions, I have to let those pieces pass me by, for I have a nasty allergy to sulfa drugs and a sensitivity to other sulfur compounds. I break out in big ol' itchy, nasty hives and that does not a good accessory make.

So what does this have to do with antiqued jewelry? Well, a great many jewelry makers use liver of sulfur solutions to age their jewelry. Even after tumbling and cleaning, traces of the sulfur compounds still remain on the items. For someone like me, it's a one-way ticket to Hive City. Which is one reason why you never see antiqued items offered in our shop. Maybe I should just pretend I'm being a rebellious iconoclast.

A rebellious iconoclast without hives, that is.

Better Fashion Through Television

After many years of living in clothing that does not fit my style or flatter me because it was the only clothing in my size, I've decided to revamp things, and my style icon of choice is the lovely Penelope Garcia of Criminal Minds, regardless of what the new TV critic at Salon.com thinks of her. I think she's glorious, with a fabulous figure. In a culture that celebrates only the thinnest, it's a refreshing change to see someone with her incredible curves dressing in things other than the printed muumuus that signify "fat person" - clothing that even vendors of plus size clothing try to pawn off on women of size as their only clothing options. Well, I say no more!



So, from now on, no colors that do not flatter me. Mix 'n' match twin sets? Good. Funky prints are awesome. And while I can't wear her fabulous footwear, I do have a nice collection of Dansko clogs in funky finishes. They're work appropriate while still in keeping with my magpie tendencies AND they make walking a joy again.

The hair I already had. I've had pink streaks in my hair of varying shades of pink since 2009, and people are not only accustomed to it, but they actually become upset when the pink is not there, like the one time I colored over them. But in addition to the pink streaks, I've started adding pretty bobby pins, flower clips and other such adornments, most of them bought or traded from fabulous Etsy sellers like this Peacock and Pheasant Feather Fan Hairclip by daniAWESOME , or these Bollywood Bobby Pins by Cultivar, not to mention the fabulous Sashiko Stars Kanzashi Bobby Pins from PetalMix that I just got today.

I want to be as awesome as Penelope Garcia when I grow up. That may never happen, but by dressing more like her and treating myself like I am worthy of pretty clothing and better looks, I feel better and I have more confidence, and that's invaluable to anyone. Rock on, Penelope, rock on.

Swarovski Spring

Swarovski has released their update on new products that will be available in their Spring/Summer 2011-12 release. Right now, I'm just going to go over the bead colors, because I CAN NOT WAIT to get my hot little hands on these.

First up is Chrysolite Opal

I have a love-hate relationship with the opal beads. If I love 'em I really love 'em, but if I hate 'em (Grey Opal, I'm looking at you), I really hate 'em. This one definitely goes into the "Love" pile. I want it yesterday. Can you imagine how it would look paired with Provence Lavender and maybe Violet Opal? I can, and the waiting is killing me.



Next up, Crystal Bronze Shade

I hate playing the "OMG STEAMPUNK" card, because most of my designs just aren't all that Steampunk, no matter how much I love the aesthetic in general. I absolutely refuse to paste watch parts and gears on things just so I can say they're Steampunk. I think both things have their place in Steampunk inspired works, but they just don't work for me. Still, these bronze sparkly lovelies will hopefully inspire me into a more steamy arena of design.



Onward to another Steamy inspiration, Topaz Blend

They look like little chocolates, don't they? Maybe it's just me and I want some chocolate. That might be it. Moving on.







Finally, there's Amethyst Shade

Now these are exciting. I love me some purple. I order Purple Velvet bicones by the multi gross packs and go through them at a prodigious rate. Same thing for Amethyst, Light Amethyst, you get the picture. What could be better than several shades of purple in one bead? I will you have you, my pretty, oh yes I will.

What about you? Do any of these colors inspire you to create something new and wonderful?

Adventures in Moisturizer

It is a truth self evident that a young...ish woman with rosacea, sensitive skin and cystic acne must be in want of something that helps her face the day without a ton of steps.

It is also a truth self evident that when the young...ish woman finds such a thing, at least one of those products must be in short supply and/or discontinued.

I have recently discovered Stila's Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 30 in 01 Light. As you can see, this lovely product is in Stila's Last Call section of the Stila site, and 01 Light is no longer available there. Just. My. Luck. Still, on to the review!

The moisturizer goes on thickly, so I was a little concerned that it was going to clog my skin and irritate my already irritated rosacea. Fortunately, this was not the case. After using this product for a week, I'm used to the thicker, more opaque texture of this moisturizer, the Light color blends in flawlessly with my skin with no itching or irritation, just a smooth wash of even color on my face. So you can imagine how I felt to find out that this amazing wonder product that actually works for me is now on the way out. Stila does make a newer version of the tinted moisturizer that is oil free, but at a lower SPF level. I know the Light tint works, since this is the product I tried in Sephora, but I did not know it was oil free at the time. So I guess I'll switch to the new version when I run out of the old version, but to delay the change a little while, I've purchased two more tubes of the Light shade from a makeup vendor who still had them in stock. If you're not quite as pale as I am, you can still give the SPF 30 product a go. At $17, it's a less painful-to-the-pocketbook way to see if Stila's tinted moisturizers will work for you.

Next up, a new foundation. I have...issues with mineral foundations. I love what they do for my skin, but so many of them make me itch, and so many others just don't look that good on me. So it was with not very high hopes that I tried the also recently discovered Almay Wake Up Make Up in Ivory. It has encapsulated water, so it feels wet when you apply it. It's kind of a weird sensation, but not unpleasant. It is not so moist that it causes the foundation to smear or streak when you apply it, but does seem to be a little less chalky/powdery than many of the mineral foundations out there. Here again, I was extremely lucky to find a good color match for my skin.

So far, I've been ecstatic at the combination of the two products in my morning routine. I have finally achieved the "your skin but better" look so many makeup products claim, and I can wear it without bother for over 16 hours with no ill effects. After so many years of dealing with makeup products that just didn't work for me, it makes getting ready in the morning much more pleasant. I just wish Stila would have left the Oil Free 30 SPF product in their line. I guess you can't win 'em all.

Valentine's Day

We had our Valentine's night on Saturday night by going to Louisville to take in a second showing of The King's Speech and a dinner at the very fine Irish Rover Restaurant in Clifton. They serve Samuel Smith's fruit ales, which makes me very happy indeed.

Tonight we're both back to our work schedules, but we'll make plans for more fun this weekend. Until then, I leave you with our second wedding picture, when we married in-game in Final Fantasy XI.

First post!

I've never been terribly good about posting in the Blogger format, and I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to keep this up, but here goes nothing! In this blog I'll bore the crap out of you with my current/planned beading/crafting projects, my love of sparkly things, makeup, clothing that might possibly fit and flatter those of us of ample curves and any fun geekery I happen to run across in my internet travels. There will probably be a few rants, raves and other such opinionated blather from time to time, since I'm not exactly known for keeping my mouth shut, even when I probably should.

Welcome to my blog. Enjoy the ride.